The men accused of sexualized violence against prisoners from the Angarsk penal colony joined the special military operation

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21 January 2025

НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЕН, РАСПРОСТРАНЕН И (ИЛИ) НАПРАВЛЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» | 18+

In 2023, the Angarsk City Court began considering a high-profile criminal case about torture in the local pre-trial detention center No. 6. Prisoners and penitentiary officers were accused of sexualized violence against prisoners transferred from the Angarsk penal colony after the riot. The victims were required to confess and name the riot’s instigators. There were eight defendants, and four of them went to the special military operation before the court’s sentence was passed.

On the night of 9-10 April 2020, a riot occurred in penal colony No. 15 in the city of Angarsk (the Irkutsk region), which was suppressed by penitentiary officers and special forces, as well as a joint OMON detachment of the Russian Guard. Prisoners from the colony were transferred to different pre-trial detention centers to be interrogated about the riot and find out the names of its organizers. Some of them ended up in pre-trial detention center No. 6 in Angarsk.

According to investigators, the «activists»* beat prisoners and used sexualized violence against them in the pre-trial detention center. These are the accused Aleksandr Aniskov, Vladimir Shleyning, Zhan Lapin, Yevgeniy Stasyuk, Vladimir Reshchikov, and Anton Ovsyannikov. Besides, the accusations of violent acts of a sexual nature (Part 2 of Article 132 of the Criminal Code) have been brought against two employees of the detention center No. 6 — the shift supervisor Vasiliy Lukovskiy and the deputy head of the regime and supervision department Dmitriy Baroyan. They did not take an active part in the violence, but at least one of them was present at the time. They were also charged with excess of authority (Part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code). Eight people have been recognized as victims in the case, their names are not disclosed, and the hearings are being held behind closed doors. According to the victims, a mop handle was used for violence, and the men were also beaten with a wooden hammer.

The Crew Against Torture learned that at the end of October 2024, the Angarsk City Court  suspended criminal cases against two defendants from among the prisoners: Zhan Lapin and Vladimir Shleyning, as they signed a contract for military service. Former penitentiary officer Vasiliy Lukovskiy also signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense. It is known that all three men have already left for the special operation zone. Two years earlier, even before the start of the court hearings on this case, «activist»* Anton Ovsyannikov died in combat. Thus, out of eight defendants, four remained – three prisoners and a former employee of the pre-trial detention center.

Lawyers who represent the interests of the victims challenged the court rulings to suspend the criminal case against each defendant, as the relevant decisions were adopted by the judge outside the court hearing, without taking into account the opinions of the case’s participants.

* «Activists» are prisoners who openly cooperate with the administration of the correctional facility.

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